Intel announces 10-core CPU at IDF

As rumoured earlier this this year, Intel has just announced that its next-generation server CPU, code-named Westmere-EX will include ten physical cores.

Unusually for Intel, this monster server CPU will not require you to build a new system from scratch. Instead, Westmere-EX is socket-compatible with the existing Xeon 7500-series, so you should be able to drop one Westmere-EX, or more realistically four CPUs into your existing servers. You will probably have to update the BIOS of your server's motherboard, however.

The increase in core count is mainly possible because, unlike the Xeon 7500-series, Westmere-EX is built using a 32nm, rather than a 45nm manufacturing process. This means it should have a similar TDP to the older CPUs, although this hasn't yet been confirmed by Intel.

Intel hasn't just bumped up the core count from eight to ten though, it's also doubled the amount of addressable memory from 1TB to 2TB. That might sound excessive, but the huge databases that quad-processor servers are designed to run are fast approaching this size. Being able to run the whole database from memory, rather than a non-volatile storage device, is a huge benefit to responsiveness and speed, especially if a whole company's worth of users are trying to access the data simultaneously.

The one slide on Westmere-EX that Intel showed also stated that it has some 'Enhanced Security' features, but we've been unable to dig out any more details about this particular aspect of the CPU.

Intel reckons Westmere-EX servers should hit the market in the first half of 2011.

Are you excited by the possibility of a 10-core CPU? Let us know your thoughts in the forum.

'Enhanced security features' - could this be what they bought McAffee for?

I can see it now: you drop a few of these into your servers, call Microsoft to authorise the hardware change then BAM the processor breaks your Windows server install for running 'malicious files'. And just to be extra secure, the chips short themselves so no one can even see what got into the cache, let alone use them.

Anyone commenting about gaming possibilities belong in a different hole on the interwebs... Gaming, even desktop applications, were not even considered in the design of this chip - anyone with two living brain cells should be able to figure that one out.

Originally Posted by The_BeastWhy ten? shouldn't it be 12 considering the last i7 were hex-core (6)

I think it may be something to do with the size of the overall processor. Let's not forget, AMD's 12 core is the size of 2 processors stuck together which basically what it is. Intel look to have shrunk everything down but until its down to 22nm then maybe this is the limit on a normal sized processor?